Wow, I have totally spaced on something cool and big. My 6 year anniversary with Josh!

We celebrated this about, oh... 2 months ago! Not writing about this is grounds alone for Josh to give me the flick. Well I'll make up for it now!

So I arranged accommodation at "The Blackman" hotel - one of the Art Series Group. They are very VERY cool! Don't get me wrong, the property was very lovely, but next time I think I'd try 'The Olsen' - it has a pool and is closer to more restaurants etc. My friend tried to warn me, but I wouldn't listen! So here is our balcony Suite for 2 nights:

So on our first night, Josh arrived super late so we got some room service dinner and lounged around in our big fluffy robes drinking red wine. I may or may not have spilled a few drops on my robe :S Of course I did... c'mon. Food is an all over experience!!


The next day in the city, we took the opportunity to do some shopping and lunch. Seeing as we both have champagne taste on a beer pay check, we went to the "Clear It" outlet on Brunswick Street Fitzroy to get some Jack London (for him) and Dangerfield (for me) items. The place was so intense. Because there weren't really any mirrors, we used my camera to model the things we liked. Here is Josh modelling but pretending to look casual. He is going to kill me for putting these up :D

Lovely <3 And here is me...

I don't know why it is so blurry. Either Josh doesn't know how to use a camera or he felt super self conscious in the girls section taking pics of his little lady so lifted it for a split second to take the picture before quickly lowering it.

Anyway he bought a few jackets and i bought... nothing! Unreal!! So we worked up an appetite and went a few doors up to the Little Creatures Dining Hall. It was awesome! You could leave your ID and borrow a board game. Naturally because Josh is obsessed with 'Words with friends' on iPhone... we got scrabble. We played at our own pace while eating, sampling the fine tap beers, and also while Josh juggled a few more scrabble games on his phone.

My yummy lunch! Beef and kipfler potato salad, with a poached egg. YUM! 

Josh got a club sandwich on a chopping board :)

That night we mustered up the appetite and energy to go out for dinner to "The Kitchen Cat" (used to be Jamie Oliver's Fifteen) which is run by Tobie Puttock - who was working hard in the kitchen :) It is a really nice basement layout and has such delicious food, but I thought it was a little pricey - particularly the alcohol. There was a great selection but we just couldn't manage it :( frown frown. I had the best EFFING dessert there - a beautiful plump grilled peach with vanilla marscapone. DROOL!! Check out their site - you will be convinced to try it.


For the rest of our time we lounged around on the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on in my life. I pulled the sheets up to see what it was...

I'm now looking out for ex-art series hotel mattresses. Providing they don't come with ghosts and STI's :) ahhaha...

Smoke on the Water

Ahoy ahoy! What a fantastic weekend I had! I want to - hold on.... Sex on Fire is playing near me and for some reason i want to smash the radio to pieces right now.. I am grinding my teeth so hard and tensing my back... i could explode... Ok i have changed the station. Rage supressed. Anyway, I want to show you some amazing things I did starting with Friday night! So one of our 'couple friends' Megan and James invited us out to Maha in the city, not only because the food is amazing but because of the Shishaaaaaaaa! So Josh and I got all dolled up and got the train in to Flinders Street. I was standing at the lights about to cross over, fussing with my skirt and jacket and clutch bag - trying to hold it all in place and avoid flashing my lingerie all over town due to the crazy winds. When we were about half way across the intersection, the rain fell. Hard. It was instant saturation, and I remember thinking "Fuck fuck fuck, my hairspray!!" as i ran to the shelter of 7-11... well it was the best running i could do in heels being assaulted by rain and wind. Everyone was screaming and running in all different directions. We thought we might wait it out...     

But it just kept coming down! Josh suggested we head towards Flinders Lane so we might be able to sneak around undercover to the restaurant. We got to the next corner and waited there for a while until it died down slightly, but it was more the waves of water carrying leaves and rubbish along the gutters and up onto our feet that got us moving. It felt like a sinking ship!

Finally at the restaurant, we were absolutely drenched. The lovely staff took out dripping jackets and showed us to the hand-dryers. I felt so silly fluffing my hair up under the hair dryer and standing one legged with my foot contorted around to get a hot blast. I was just praying nobody came in and exposed me for the ragamuffin I really am. Luckily nobody did and I remained one of the most well dressed people dining that night - the other 3 being my dinner dates naturally! So once my shoes were emptied and Josh's white shirt had ceased being a free ticket to the nipple-show, we waited in the lounge with cocktails, chats and our grape shisha!!  Of course they made sure I went first....Inhale...

Annnddd Exhaaalllleeeeeee.............

Haha! So good! Another thing crossed off the list - and done in style no less :) Think shisha, think no burn, no cough - Just the intersection of flavour street and cool avenue located in the heart of Awesome City. Speaking of awesome city, do you like my giant rose? Very Sex and the city inspired, I do declare! Anyway, we all played around with the shisha for a while...

I totally want to photoshop this picture hahahaaaaaaaaaa *evil*

wi-wiew megan! What a fine specimen of woman-kind :) After the shisha fun, it was onto the meal!! We were first welcomed by an aptly named Egyptian hibiscus welcome Tea: 

It was a little shot glass, with this dark, sweet, thick, and most importantly yummy liquid inside. We ordered a bottle of Maltese Delicata wine too- available at this restaurant only apparently. YUM! We had locked ourselves in for the 4 course Soufra. First course was berid mezze - small cold dishes. We got beetroot dip, olives, fennel with dill, cheese balls (forgot the name), hot bread and these amazing tomato and asparagus soup shots. But it was like clarifiied tomato... amazing...amazingly blurred photo....

Next was soukhoun mezze - small plates. There were 2 dishes. The first was like rabbit cigars, they tasted like baklava with meat. Very yummy! This one was Eggs coated in chicken and spices with an apple and chive salsa.

Then came sahen kbeer - large plates. There was fattoush salad, slow cooked pork belly on onion puree with pomegranate and other bits on top. There was also twelve hour roasted Mt. leaura lamb shouler with pistachio and green olive tabouleh, and Turkish "baldo" pilaf with dill, apricot and pine nuts. OMG...

Finally was helwayet - sweets. We got turkish delight filled Maha doughnuts sprinkled with crushed candied almonds. In the middle... i forgot - something fluffy and creamy and coffee-ish. It was amazing. Then Basil Ice cream with Rose Jelly and berries, and dehydrated sponge cake....

Then delicious tea, and complimentary hand cleansing oil, and vials of maha spices to take home and create your own special meal! After all that we waddled up stairs to the door and into the rain, and the lovely staff gave us some umbrellas to use and said just bring them back if we're ever passing by... wow 

Happy to be dry!! The poor things had to get up at 4.30am the next morning for an interstate flight! Wouldn't have gotten much sleep I don't think :( Ah well, I'm sure basking in our glorious company for the night was worth it :D Anyway, I'm planning an elaborate dinner for these two to say thanks for a great double date night! Watch this space!

Lunchtime Adventure Challenge: Free Samples Lunch @ QVM

Good day everyone! So for those of you who don't know, I sometimes go on little adventures in my lunch break - destinations carefully selected by my cousin or friend who live interstate. We check out google maps of the eateries surrounding each other's work places and select a place for each other to go and sometimes set challenges. Today my destination was the Queen Victoria Market and the challenge was to eat a lunch comprising of free samples. I'm quite shy in person and don't usually ask for samples, but today I left all inhibitions at my desk and went guns blazing and mouth open into the belly of the free sample beast. I took Kate along as photographer so you believed I actually did it. She and I had a grand old time which began in the fruit section, where free samples are encouraged....

Here I ate 3 little bits of pineapple. Mind you, it was a $7.90 organic pineapple and was absolutely DELICIOUS! Also in the organic section, I stopped for 1 macadamia nut and 2 roasted cashew nuts...

We had our eyes peeled for another little bowl somewhere, and here i found it with some yellow nectarine. I got 2 little cubes maybe 1cm square or less haha..

Next was on to the cheese! I hit this place first, and tried the King Island Brie, the Cheddar and the Blue. The Cheddar was worth a mention :)

Then we hit another cheese stand which the photos of me were horrendous... and i tried the blue cheese there. Next was onto a place where I was going to ask for an olive sample before we got distracted by this:

We asked what it was and the man explained it was a Greek dessert made from sesame...tahini, nuts, and chocolate. those were his words. He said the whole thing could sell for $250 - $300 but you can buy small sections for about $8. That was interesting enough for me so we gave it a go and:

FIREWORKS! This stuff is amazing!! It has the strangest texture like fairy floss/nougat combined! The guy suggested that we should crumble it over ice cream and we nearly jizzed it. That would be AMAZING! I want to check out a recipe and see if it is actually something that some non-greek nobody like me could pull off :D wee-hooooooo!! Next was onto the African stall, I was actually just checking out the spice mixes as I'm planning to make some african soon ;) I have a feeling I could pick this up in Footscray cheaper, as it's $12 for the medium jar... or i could possibly make it myself?

Next was onto the nut shop. I had to think of something obscure enough to ask for and act as though i was interested to try it. I picked dried blueberries as i didnt think i had had them before.

I was genuinely interested after eating them and asked whether they reconstitute in muffins or pancakes etc when you cook them but they didnt know anything haha. Oh, next i was determined to get an olive. We went to this place that had all different kinds of stuffed olives and i pretended like I wanted to know what i was getting in case I didn't like it. And i was:

No samples! OUCH! Then i hit another cheese stand and tried their brie, cheddar and blue. All three = amazing! I will definately buy some of the blue.. it was a gorgonzola dolce something. I'll remember when i see it.

Oh, then it was on to dip central! This place had the best green olive dip for sampling and also a sun-dried tomato pesto for sampling. Then i was cheeky and asked to sample 2 more flavours - one of which was carrot and coriander dip - which i have never had!

That face is the face of positive assessment! There was a strange woman next to me who urged me to try another flavour - spicy hommus. I felt like i had taken too much from them already and the shopkeeper only agreed to let me have a taste 'as long as i don't ask to sample every flavour'. I promised, and the spicy hommus was in my mouth. Of course it was tainted with guilt so didn't taste so great.

Next door was the wine cellar. They advertised 2 wines available for tasting. This one:

And a rosé. I tried both and didnt like the rosé, but the moscato was great! I asked the guy if it really has white chocolate flavours in it, and the lovely man (sarcasm) said "No, it's just there so girls like you get all excited and buy it." before walking off to get me a glass....................................... hmmm. Here he is:

I'm not sure if he was actually a see you next tuesday, or if he was trying that schoolyard cheeky thing on me, a bit reminiscent of 'the game'... negs and all that shizz...

I drank to 'all the girls like me' out there. All the girls who slept in and had 8 minutes to get ready thus didnt put on makeup or do their hair :P Then we checked out the French shoppe. Crazy stuff in there..

Oh yeah (oh my god we went everywhere) then we hit the juice bar which had a sign saying "please ask for a free sample" so i tasted the lemon cheesecake yoghurt and then the apple and rhubarb yoghurt (yuuuummm) but then she noticed the camera and got a bit funny...

Then we went back to the first cheese place I was at because there was a new person serving cheese. It must have been all 2 sips of that wine i drank going to my head and imparing my judgement for me to think it was a good idea. The lady actually said the boy's name and asked "Why have they got a camera!?" and then everyone looked at eachother awkwardly and we walked off in a hurry. hahahaha. I should have gotten up on my soapbox and said "there is no rule as to how many samples you can have god damn it!!!"

I tried 1 sunflower seed but i didnt realise it was in a shell until i was almost choking on it :P

Then we hit the fruit place again as nobody cared who ate what...

So there you have it... 5 bits of pineapple, 2 bits of yellow nectarine, 1 macadamia, 2 cashews, 9 cheese samples, 2 halva samples, 1 taste of berbere spice mix, 4 dried blueberries, 4 dip samples, 2 wine samples, 2 yoghurt samples, 1 sunflower seed - complete with shell, 1 bit of white peach, and 1/4 of a strawberry. I just thought the cumquats were funny :) So even after all that scabbing about 3 hours ago, i am hungry. surprise surprise! I have some steamed vegetables to eat just in case (yay). Kate had said I wasnt allowed to have a back-up lunch otherwise i wouldnt have the determination to get as many samples. She changed her mind as she was impressed by my forwardness and was happy with the amount i got. We agreed that we probably couldn't have got any more and had robbed enough local farmers for one day. On the plus side, I now love halva, know where to go for an amazing green olive dip and also where to go for the best blue cheese. Hooray! Oh and i picked up a bottle of that cool moscato to drink with my friend Mel who gets back from Hawaii today. She is a 'girl like me' who can appreciate a cute bottle of wine ;)